Gary Snyder
Author of Turtle Island
About the Author
Gary Snyder was born in San Francisco, California on May 8, 1930. He received a B.A. in anthropology at Reed College in 1951. Between working as a logger, a trail-crew member, and a seaman on a Pacific tanker, he was associated with Beat poets such as Allen Ginsberg and Gregory Corso and studied in show more a Zen monastery in Japan. He wrote numerous books of poetry and prose including Danger on Peaks, Mountains and Rivers Without End, No Nature: New and Selected Poems, The Practice of the Wild, Regarding Wave, and Myths and Texts. He received an American Book Award for Axe Handles and the Pulitzer Prize for poetry for Turtle Island. He has also received an American Academy of Arts and Letters award, the Bollingen Prize, the Bess Hokin Prize, the Levinson Prize from Poetry, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, and the Shelley Memorial Award. In 2012, he received the Wallace Stevens Award for lifetime achievement by the Academy of American Poets. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: 1990s
Works by Gary Snyder
Six sections from Mountains and rivers without end, plus one (Four Seasons Foundation. Writing, 9) (1965) 79 copies
On Bread and Poetry: A Panel Discussion Between Gary Snyder, Lew Welch and Philip Whalen (1977) 33 copies
The fudo trilogy: Spel against demons: Smokey the Bear sutra. The California water plan (1973) 17 copies
In Transit: The Gary Snyder Issue 4 copies
Caterpillar 19: Spring 1972 — Contributor — 3 copies
Dooby Lane: Also Known as Guru Road, A Testament Inscribed in Stone Tablets by DeWayne Williams (2016) 2 copies
Deep Ecology for the 21st Century (Unabridged Audio Edition/New Dimensions Radio Presentation) 2 copies
This Present Moment 2 copies
Re-habitar: ensaios e poemas 2 copies
Nanao Knows 2 copies
Alcheringa. Ethnopoetics. Volume One. Number One. Autumn 1970. — Co-Editor — 1 copy
Earth geography booklet 1 copy
Buddhist Anarchism 1 copy
Four changes 1 copy
Voices of Change 1 copy
Range of Poems 1 copy
Hop, Skip and Jump 1 copy
10 Volumes of Gary Snyder 1 copy
Spel Against Demons 1 copy
Go Round 1 copy
Dlaczego kierowcy ciężarówek z drewnem wstają wcześniej niż adepci Zen : wiersze wybrane (2013) 1 copy
North Beach 1 copy
For All 1 copy
Sharkmeat 1 copy
Song to the Raw Material 1 copy
Ri-abitare nel grande flusso 1 copy
Mouse & Lion 1 copy
Two Logging Songs 1 copy
Associated Works
Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama (1995) — Contributor, some editions — 915 copies
The Rolling Stone Book of the Beats: The Beat Generation and American Culture (1999) — Contributor — 167 copies
The divine woman : dragon ladies and rain maidens in T'ang literature (1537) — Foreword, some editions — 46 copies
The Mountains and Waters Sutra: A Practitioner's Guide to Dogen's "Sansuikyo" (2018) — Contributor, some editions — 33 copies
About Women: An Anthology of Contemporary Fiction, Poetry, and Essays (1973) — Contributor — 26 copies
Some Poems, Poets: Studies in American Underground Poetry since 1945 (1971) — Contributor — 7 copies
Foot #2 — Contributor — 2 copies
Kayak 12 — Contributor — 1 copy
Niagara Frontier Review, Spring-Summer 1965 — Contributor — 1 copy
Wild Dog #17 — Contributor — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Snyder, Gary Sherman
- Birthdate
- 1930-05-08
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- San Francisco, California, USA
- Places of residence
- North San Juan, Nevada County, California, USA
Kyoto, Japan
Portland, Oregon, USA - Education
- Reed College (BA|1951)
Indiana University
University of California, Berkeley
American Academy of Asian Studies - Occupations
- poet
essayist
professor
translator
seaman
carpenter (show all 7)
logger - Relationships
- Uehara, Masa (former wife)
Snyder, Kai (son)
Snyder, Gen (son)
Kyger, Joanne (former wife) - Organizations
- University of California, Davis
- Awards and honors
- American Academy of Arts and Letters (Literature, 1987)
Bollingen Prize (1997)
Shelley Memorial Award (1986)
Robert Kirsch Award (1996)
Western Literature Association's Distinguished Achievement Award (1984)
American Academy of Arts and Letters Academy Award (1966) (show all 13)
Masaoka Shiki International Haiku Grand Prize (2004)
Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize (2008)
Wallace Stevens Award (2012)
Levinson Prize (1968)
John Hay Award for Nature Writing (1997)
Buddhism Transmission Award (1998)
Bess Holkin Prize (1964)
Members
Reviews
Lists
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 96
- Also by
- 56
- Members
- 5,495
- Popularity
- #4,535
- Rating
- 4.1
- Reviews
- 54
- ISBNs
- 156
- Languages
- 14
- Favorited
- 33
Gary Snyder is an animist, as am I. So when I learned of Snyder, I was immediately intrigued—an animist Beatnik.
Although I've been hearing about Snyder for a few years now, I haven't read much of his material. "Mountains and Rivers Without End" is Snyder's Magnum Opus, so I thought I might as well start there. Some had advised against this, but I would say—if you're willing to put in the time, you won't regret it!
The following is a book review of both "Mountains and Rivers Without End" and "A Sense of the Whole."
Gary Snyder spent forty years writing "Mountains and Rivers Without End"—from 1956 to 1996. For the '97-'98 academic year, Gonnerman hosted a seminar at Stanford on "Mountains and Rivers Without End." A broad community of intellectuals, artists, and spiritual leaders contributed to this corpus, which eventually lead to the publication of "A Sense of the Whole" in 2015 (I'm not entirely sure what led to the seventeen year delay). Snyder himself says that working with "Mountains and Rivers Without End" is a treacherous journey, and therefore recommends taking on the endeavor in community. This points to some of the ways in which Snyder's work harkens back to oral traditions. The copy I have includes an audio edition, and I appreciated being able to hear the work in Snyder's own voice (I wasn't able to track down a digital edition of the work).
If you're contemplating engaging with this work, I would encourage you to put together a reading plan. In my case, I read the poem from end to end first, then read the entirety of the companion volume, then listened to the audio edition of the poem. Throughout this time I was taking notes and having discussion with friends—both those familiar and unfamiliar with the text.
I read much less poetry than prose, so I will comment that whereas with prose, I generally read a book once, I can certainly see a work like this being something I come back to multiple or numerous times, as poems have a dynamic, ever-changing quality to them.
The poem is divided into four parts, following the structure of a Noh play.
My first reading of the piece wasn't particularly rapturous, although, as I was anticipating this, I stuck with it. Things really took off once I picked up the companion text. The corpus of the poem is a talisman. There might be a line that appears unremarkable, commonplace. But then once you place the line in context—the context of Chinese landscape art, Zen Buddhism, animism, geology, yogic mythology, or any of a numerous set of relationships—the line transports you to a web of relationship.
I also happen to be reading John McPhee's "From Annals of the Former World," a Pulitzer-winning book on the geology of the United States. I can certainly recommend this as one lens to deepen into Snyders work, although there are many others as well.
You might notice, I have yet to say really anything on the subject of what the poem is "about." Like any spiritual text, an meaning we derive from the material has as much to do with our own practice with the work as it does with some kind of objective set of takeaways. For this reason, I'll continue to marinade on the poetry, and hopefully this has given you enough reason to pick up the material for yourself.… (more)